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Autistics Good at Foreign Languages? | ||
Tags: Autism | Foreign Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| tanya b Senior Member United States Joined 4779 days ago 159 posts - 518 votes  Speaks: Russian | Message 1 of 35 06 February 2012 at 6:30am | IP Logged | ||
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The idea of autistic foreign language learners seems like a contradiction, because many people assume that autistics, including higher-functioning ones, lack the ability or desire to communicate.
Last year I read an article about Asperger's Syndrome (which I can't source) which stated that some higher-functioning autistic children have a natural, even effortless ability in foreign languages, stemming NOT from a desire to communicate and interact with others, but instead from an interest in hearing different sounds created through their own individual vocalizations. Some autistic children have even "invented" their own "languages". I sometimes wonder how many of the hard-core language learners out there study languages not so much because they want to communicate with others, but because they simply find the "sound" of foreign languages irresistible and fascinating. I definitely put myself in the second category. Edited by tanya b on 06 February 2012 at 6:36am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5227 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 2 of 35 06 February 2012 at 8:17am | IP Logged | ||
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Actually I'm somewhere in the middle. I find so little people in real life I really have a desire to communicate with (so I'd be a bit autistic), that learning languages to cover the widest possible area seems the only way to escape :)
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| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 3 of 35 06 February 2012 at 8:26am | IP Logged | ||
I doubt there are many polyglots* who study foreign languages in order to communicate. You can learn one or maybe two languages like that, but not many. Surely amongst hard-core learners the geeky type is the vast majority. I believe Prof. Arguelles wrote something to the same effect, that the strongest motivation is that of enjoying the study, of intellectual curiosity. If you learn a language in order to use it, I don't think you're likely to find yourself amongst the "hard-core" learners. * Using the "knows lots and lots of languages" definition of polyglot here. Edited by Ari on 06 February 2012 at 8:41am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5023 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 35 06 February 2012 at 8:39am | IP Logged | ||
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My job involves working with peoplem with learning disabillities, and I work with one autistic young man who has a knowledge of over 50 foreign languages.
Notice I said "knowledge of" before anyone tells me thats impossible. He cant really effectively communicate in any of them, but he is absolutely obsessed by them. I have shown him videos on youtube and was impressed to see that recognised certain words as being Navajo and georgian. He types a lot of phrases into google translate and memorises the transaltion, which means that a lot of what he knows is grammatically incorrect. He is however very keen on communicating, and uses his languages every chance he gets. He is always asking me to get people from different languages to the group so that he can speak with them. Edited by dbag on 06 February 2012 at 8:41am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 35 06 February 2012 at 9:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I think we have to separate Aspergers from the other autists (or just autists if you don't accept Aspergers as 'true' autists). They have according to the descriptions an uncanny patience within their field of interest, and with good learning methods they could become polyglots - though probably not of the talkative type.
Within the rest group there are a few cases of savants, like a certain Christopher who could read and translate from twenty language and maybe, maybe not speak in some of them. Another savant (known only by his initials) has been studied by an American linguist - but after a cursory search I have not been able to find the article again. But savants are rare, and all in all they don't seem to drift to language learning, but rather to drawing, music and calendars. As for the most publicized case, D.Tammett, his exact status has been discussed in a separate thread, and here and now I wouldn't draw conclusions concerning savants from his achievements. Edited by Iversen on 06 February 2012 at 2:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6553 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 6 of 35 06 February 2012 at 2:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Iverson has touched on key subject. Whether one uses the term autist, Asperger's or idiot savant these are just poor classifiers for different-abled phenomena. I'm not suggesting a politcally correct manner of speaking about these individuals rather that the coin used to describe them is a false money. We really do not know enough about learning ability of the mind to readily be able to do anything but have a vague classification of these individuals. When the boundaries of a biophysical of physiological condition cannot be clearly elucidated we fall back on the useful term of "syndrome" or in this case the even more vague "spectrum syndrome" - a humble recognition that we are lumping a lot of different shaped aond colored things together like fruits in a fruitbowl.
Having worked with "autists" or really with individuals with significant cognitive and communcation difficulties I find that most of them are NOT particularly good at foreign languages or even language in general. Speech, interaction and communication are an evident difficulty. And yet, for a few individuals rightly or wrongly classified as highly-functional autists or Asperger's they have polyglot skills -- although the majority of these individuals do not. Edited by zenmonkey on 06 February 2012 at 8:13pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6621 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 7 of 35 06 February 2012 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have autism or Asperger's syndrome if you prefer to call it that. I don't think I'm any better at languages than other people. The thing that makes autistic people good at languages (if they are) is their intense interest in one subject, the often extremely logical way of thinking which makes grammar especially fascinating for us, plus a tendency towards a very good memory. The problems in communication for higher functioning autists is a problem with taking things to literally (perhaps because of our tendency towards visual thinking) and a difficulty in understanding other peoples' feelings and intentions. Also of course, we often like to be by ourselves and aren't interested in things like small talk. We also have difficulty expressing/talking about our own feelings and things like that and can have difficulty speaking when under stress.
As to what Iversen wrote, there is now a tendency to go away from the term Asperger syndrome and consider that as merely being at the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum (according to my therapist who is an expert in this field). This is because the main point of differentiation between Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism has been the age at which one learns to talk. However, many who would otherwise be classified as having Asperger syndrome simply choose not to talk until they can do it right. (We hate to do things incorrectly.) So they often go from not speaking at all, to speaking entire sentences. Note that the tag on this thread says "mental illness." Autism is not a mental illness nor any other kind of illness. It is a neural development disorder. I happen to also have a mental illness and they are quite different things. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5023 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 35 06 February 2012 at 3:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree. The tag "mental illness" really needs to be removed as Autism is no such thing.
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